[Miley]

I know nothing of cats but just wanted to add that you're an angel for saving his life
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[ZoesMom]

He is sooooooooo cute!! Thank you for saving him, Amanda!!! I loved the video... I was going awww the whole time. He sure seems to like Niko with the head butting he was doing!!

I second Rain with the wet food. It's really important, especially for male cats. My boy kitty ended up getting a urinary blockage because he was on a dry diet.

My first thought at the pic of his chin was that it looks like road rash. I bet someone did throw him out of a car.

All of my kitties are indoor only. They do just fine. You could try to get him used to going places. I did with my youngest but she ended up just hating it.

 

[ChelseaMorning]

He is SO cute. Definitely not feral though- feral cats are SCARED and ANGRY, this guy was well socialized to take so well to you and Niko so quickly. I so hope he wasn't thrown from a car, that is just awful, but I am glad that you ended up with him.

My cat eats a combination of raw and freeze dried raw. It has been an amazing change for her healthwise. Adding water to a high protein dry food can help counter some of the problems Rain mentioned with UTIs and intestinal blockage if you have your heart set on kibble.

For toys, I love the fuzzy flirt poles and laser pointers the best...everything else just seems to end up under my fridge. Haha.

Congratulations again. This is one special cat.

 

[AmandaB]

So I think his name shall be Acorn♥. I am not 100% that I will keep him but.... He is SO CUTE!
I am trying to think about it really though. Do I want a cat for the next 15 years...? ect ect onder: Buttttt.... he is SO CUTE!
I have never before though "Gee, I want a cat" but now that I have him.... Do I trust someone else to give him a forever home...?? :\

I wish I could get my hands on whoever tossed him... :headshake::hammer: People can be evil.

ZoesMom,
We will see if he likes it. If not I wont except for time in the yard or sitting at the park... I would think he WOULD like it though... Be something out of the ordinary/boring indoor life... onder:

 

[Gingersnaps]

Yay, baby!

For the litter box training, we'd feed Korra a meal and that would usually stimulate her tummy enough to give her the urge to potty. We'd scoop her up and put her in her "training wheels" litter box in the crate. It took a few tries, but she finally got it. Shredded up Thrifty Nickles were the original liner, and then we moved on to a cedar and pine litter. Honestly, I'd stick with paper shreds for now to make it easier to detect any worms.

We switched her off of kitten food with some Wellness Core wet food. She loved it, and if you have a Tractor Supply nearby, they frequently run sales. I picked up some for just 17 cents a can not long ago.

 

[Rain]

You're welcome! Tell you the truth the cat forum seemed almost like some sort of exclusive club, but the posters were very knowledgeable and did their best to answer any questions. I much prefer good ole DF LOL, but I had a few specific questions about Cats territorial problems that I hoped they would be able to help with.

Honestly how the cat does traveling depends on it's personality and how much socialization it got as a kitten. Some may do fine as a kitten, then when they reach adulthood turn into timid cats, others may have a love of adventure and be happy to follow you everywhere.

My opinion on indoor/outdoor cat varies, it depends on where the cat lives. Where I am out in the country the biggest dangers to the cats are stray dogs and coyotes. The coyotes are mainly a problem at night, and if I had been able to keep Cat I would have kept keeping him in at night, but the loose dogs can be a problem at any time day or night. In the city it depends on the street the cat lives on, and how tolerant the neighbors are. City cats face more dangers.

MacLeod was indoor outdoor. I lived on a quiet street and he was a door dasher, I gave up trying to keep him in.

Pirate was raised indoor only, since I lived on a very busy street as I got him. He had no desire to get out, I could leave the door open and never have him try and get out.

Cat was something special. He LOVED it outside but happily came in in the evenings and never tried to get out once it was dark. Outside he'd happily follow me around like a dog in a cat suit, he loved going new places and seeing new things. If he didn't have an owner I was going to see if I couldn't get him to wear a harness and long line in the hopes that I could keep him and Rusty separate while I tried to get them to get along.

The thing with cats is that most like to do their own thing, some will behave more like dogs on a leash but most don't. I'd think it'd be worth trying if that's what you want him to do. I'd start now while he's young, see if you can find a kitten size harness and start getting him used to it like you'd get a puppy used to a collar, and start taking him different places. The more good experiences he gets the better it will be.

 

[ZoesMom]

Cats are awesome!! You can clicker train him to do tricks! Mine know how to spin, sit pretty, wave a paw, they know to jump up where I point. They follow a target stick.

 

[justmary]

Oh, you definitely should keep him! Compared to dogs, a cat is sooooooooooo easy. My cat is a real butthead but I love her.

 

[fawkese1]

i love the name acorn! and i had the same thought about being tossed and landing on his face.
young kittens are often "fearless" for a while, as he matures, he'll start to be more cautious of new things, so just like with puppies its a good idea to work on socializing him to all sorts of things now. also, on the litter, its the same way you train a puppy, confinement, and frequent trips to the litter box, especially after play/meals. you can give treats when he goes.

on the harness, my cat is harness trained. i put a harness on him when he was a kitten, and he wore it everyday until he grew up. he is great on it, and great about being in new places but he hates the actual travel part. i didnt spend enough time getting him used to that. as far as hiking with you, i've only seen that work with the bengal cats, cats don't really wander around quite the same way as dogs do, though you could work on it. just don't get you hopes up too high.


really, cats and dogs aren't all that different, so if you are worried about how to work on something, just think about how you would do it if he were a puppy...

he sure is cute!

 

[crock]

I have never before though "Gee, I want a cat" but now that I have him.... Do I trust someone else to give him a forever home...?? :\

First... I <3 "Acorn." How cute is that?! And I can totally see him riding around in Niko's cart! There's one blogger who even totes their parrot around in one!

Re: the quote.... I know just how you feel! I still have my stray/dumped kittens (since 5 weeks, now about 13-14 wks old) but a no-kill cat rescue accepted them/technically owns them now. So I have absolutely no control over where they go, which at first, I thought would make it easier for me (of course, I also didn't expect to be taking care of them for more than a couple weeks...).

In fact one of my vet techs here wanted to adopt Phoebe as a barn cat, and I've been debating whether or not to take her to the clinic to visit with her (she hasn't sent in her app yet). I just don't know if I feel comfortable with her being a barn cat, even though I know she'd always be medically taken care of.... I've also had dreams (nightmares) where the rescue has come to my house to finally take them to their adoption center and I would flip out and try to stop them from taking them! LOL

Anyways, in a neighborhood, I'm not comfortable with outdoor only cats or really indoor/outdoor unless the cat can be contained within the yard or a cat-safe area--people do mean, stupid, and/or ignorant things to cats on their property, cars, dogs, etc. If these kittens were truly feral/unable to be socialized (they are now all cuddle bugs), I would have been fine with a barn cat type home as above. For country homes, I guess I would have to consider how bad the predators are and how much the cat tends to wander, etc. before deciding on how suitable an outdoor lifestyle would be.

Our once-in-a-lifetime cat was indoor outdoor most of his 17+ year life, but towards the end would just go out to sunbathe on the patio and roll around in the flower beds for a bit. He used to wander--in fact, he got lost for several weeks as a kitten when we lived in town, then when we moved, he went exploring (in coyote territory) for about a week, and when we settled onto our acreage, he regularly went to one of the neighboring parcels. Lucky for us, he never crossed the highway, rarely went on the road, didn't get caught by coyotes or neighbors' dogs, etc--so many risks looking back now and we would have been devastated.... I wonder if I'm being over-paranoid, though, and getting too protective because I *know* they enjoy the outdoors.

Okay, to sum up this ridiculously long ramble, I will say that would love if my kittens ended up as indoor cats if they were within the city, but would be okay if they were indoor/outdoor if they were out a ways (although I have never let my kittens outside since I've gotten them so I don't know how that transition would go.../trying not to think about that! / ). I think they can be happy indoors with enough stimulation and access to windows, patios, things to climb, companionship, etc.

 

[AmandaB]

I have seen kaiser (nana border collie's dog on YouTube and thought "sorcery!" lolz... Maybe I will try that once he is settled in...

 

[AmandaB]

Fawkese
I dont expect him to actually hike with us, more him ride on my shoulder while Niko and I hike and maybe explore on breaks...? Maybe.. Only if he likes it though.

So Niko and Acorn (My boys!!♥) were both laying on Niko's bed that I took out of his crate so Acorn can stay in there at night till litter trained. I took this shot of them
-You can see the scabs on his lower lip... :

AWWww!


Then I asked Niko "Niko, do you think we should keep the kitty?" and he did this:


ROFL! What is THAT supposed to mean?!!?

Acorn isnt crying too much and when he does I am doing pretty good at ignoring him BUT Niko on the other hand... He is laying by the crate and licking Acorn through the bars... ♥♥ DAwwww!!! I think Niko has made the final decision for me... I think Acorn has found his forever home... *facepalm* Why me!?!?! j/k

 

[AmandaB]

Question!

I have been doing some reading, how old were your cats before you got them neutered/spayed? I read that the sooner you do it the less likely they are to get the "pooch/apron" after being neutered/spayed. Also feeding the correct amount of food and exercise affects it.

Does early neutering help prevent the pooch/apron?

How do you "exercise" a cat? My sisters cat has a large pooch and he refuses to play most of the time. So how would you exercise a cat if it doesnt want to play?? onder:

 

[crock]

Oh my gosh, what a cute photo! He is colored very similarly to my Phoebe (who is my favorite, btdubbs ).

And idk if this is why you named him Acorn, but he totally has a squirrel-holding-an-acord face.

 

[crock]

Levi was probably around 6 months? It was so long ago. He never had a pooch issue (are you talking about belly pooches?).

These girls were done when they were about 8 weeks since it was the rescue's call. The shelter I volunteer at does them between 8-12 weeks I believe. At the clinic, most of the cats were about 4-6 months when they were speutered.

Exercising cats... flirt pole!, cat walks, lasers, toys.... for the engaging owner. Levi never got overweight (maybe because he was indoor/outdoor), but indoors, he would play with random items (he was uninterested in cat toys so things like caps, bouncy balls, etc) and storm through the house.

 

[zoorun]

Our shelter does the Kitties at a certain weight (maybe 2lbs if I remember right). I think cats mature faster than dogs too, so you may be able to get him done sooner rather than later if you would like. I would guess him being about 9 weeks?

 

[AmandaB]

HAHA! He does have a squirrely face! The black on the lower lip is the scabs though... Gotta wait till he is better to really know what he will look like.

I named him Acorn cause its a cute name, name of a rabbit from my fav book (watership down) and also cause when I first saw him he was falling/tumbling/running after a near miss with the car and well... Acorns fall from trees... Ok, fine, wutevs, it makes sense to me... ;P

I want Acorn to be outside at least every other day but he will do so with supervision... before my bro got Lilly he had a bob tailed kitten from a farm and the neighbor ran it over on the 2nd or 3rd day he had it.. Totally on accident, not their fault. I wake up to a cat fight in our back yard at least once a year too... :S

 

[Rain]

Yay! I'm so glad that you are keeping him!

I'm not sure about how to avoid the spay sway, what we call it around here LOL.

For toys, Pirate ignored the jingle balls, fake mice etc. but loved interactive play / toys. He liked me to throw foil balls (he never tore them up) down the hall for him to chase, and he loved his cat teaser (flirt pole). He'd bring me one or the other when he was ready to play.

I'd also get him a cat tree, Ones that are tall, multi tiered, and include different types of surface material, wood, carpet, sisal rope, are the best kinds. They encourage the cat/kitten to climb and scratch there rather then your furniture.

If he does start to develop a scratching problem, you can try clipping his nails (If he's pricking you with the claws) or putting soft paws on him if he's going after your furniture.

 

[Rain]

Ohhh forgot to mention, they do make cat escape proof fencing, but it's expensive! It's called Purrfect Fence and from what I read is almost $800 for 100 ft.

 

[AmandaB]

He is asleep so I dont want to wake him to weigh him... I will have him weighed if the vet can get me in tomorrow and ask him how soon he does it for cats.

Poor Acorn, he is finally rescued only to be tossed in a bath, have his ears cleaned, have a dog in his face and now Im already thinking of taking his "manhood"... lolz!